Weight Loss Pills: Do They Provide The Results Dieters Want?

Weight Loss Pills: Do They Provide The Results Dieters Want?

For dieters who want to lose weight, and have tried everything but surgery to do it, weight loss pills may seem to be the answer. There are many pills available on the market. The question is how effective are they in helping dieters achieve results?

Medical Daily reported that only certain weight loss pills are effective to help dieters get the results they want. With one third of Americans who are obese, the number of options available for weight loss have exploded. Researchers at the University of California tested five different pharmacological options to determine which options worked. Some worked better than others.

When researchers compared the results of the different weight loss drugs in the study, they found that different drugs produced different results although all the drugs worked. In a study conducted with 29,000 people, researchers discovered that the these two drugs worked the best: Qsymia (phentermine-topiramate) and Victoza (liraglutide). Using one of these two drugs, dieters were able to lose about five percent of their body weight. The drug least likely to product results was Xenical. The leading researcher in the study, Dr. Siddarth Singh, said that not every drug would be right for everyone.

As previously reported in Inquisitr, the FDA approved another option for dieters who were severely overweight. The AspireAssist allows dieters to remove part of their stomach contents after meals. The device is designed for dieters over the age of 22 who have a body mass index between 35 and 55 and don’t suffer from eating disorders.

CNBC reported that the FDA approved five new weight loss drugs for use by dieters. Although the FDA approved the drugs, no long term studies have been done to determine the real effectiveness of these drugs. A new study was published by the American Medical Association.

Patients in the study lost varying amounts of weight on the drugs, with Qsymia and Saxenda producing the best results at 19.4 and 11.6 pounds respectively. Siddharth Singh of the University of California, San Diego, and his colleagues conducted 28 random clinical trials with 29,000 patients who were an average age of 46. Three fourths of the patients were women with a median weight of 222 pounds and a body mass index of 36.1. One of the more interesting aspects of the study is that patients who took either Saxenda or Contrave were most likely to discontinue taking the weight loss drugs after a life altering event.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Garcinia cambrogia and whether or not it was effective in helping dieters lose weight. Unlike the drugs approved by the FDA, Garcinia cambrogia doesn’t require a prescription because it’s available over the counter. The rise in sales of the weight loss supplement has been attributed to being featured on the Dr. Oz Show.

Garcinia cambrogia is the former scientific name of a Southeast Asian plant that contains an active ingredient called hydroxycitric acid, which inhibits an enzyme that produces fatty acid. It suppresses the fatty acid while processing cholesterol.

To determine the effectiveness of a product, the gold standard is double blind, randomized, controlled clinical studies. The problem is that no studies like that have ever been done on the product. The studies that have been done have only been done on animals.

In a 12 week double blind placebo controlled study done on humans, those who received 3000 mg of Garcinia cambrogia extract achieved the same weight loss as those who didn’t take the supplement. Another 12 week study with a four week follow up also found no greater weight loss effect.

[Photo by Pixabay]

Weight Loss Pills: Do They Provide The Results Dieters Want? is an article from: The Inquisitr News

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